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Gosh it has been ages since I wrote a post. I have had a bit of a break from being on social media so much as I was finding it was taking over my life far too much when I was doing my network marketing business and I had no time for anything else.

Anyway, one thing which I have really been focusing on is exercise and eating better. I did my 30 day to healthy living in Feburary and I did feel amazing while I did it, but I hold my hands up and say that when it was over I 100% craved all the things I had banned. I know it works for some people but it did not for me as it was too strict.

However, after spending March and most April in eating overdrive and gaining the 4lbs I lost plus more I decided something had to be done. I have been sticking to having 1-2 shakes a day with added fruit, nuts or seeds as they fit in with my life meaning that I don’t need to think about what to make for breakfast or lunch. In addition to this I have been having a healthy tea. I haven’t cut anything specific out this time and have found because of that I have not craved it, nor have I been eating spoonfuls of nut butter simply because it was the only thing a little bit tasty that I was allowed.

I have also been motivated with the gym and been out running. With running I decided not to time myself and just stick to 5k and with the gym I am doing a mixture of classes and my own thing on the machines.

I definitely feel so much better when I am exercising and eating healthy however I don’t think restrictive diets are for me.

Just a quick blog post today but I wanted to share a bit about something which I am becoming more and more aware of:

Self Talk; specifically negative self talk. I have read a couple of books. One in particular which resonated with me was You are a Badass which is all about conquering self doubt and becoming the best version of yourself.

Self doubt and negative self talk can end up consuming you. It can start with a thought in the morning like ‘I’m always late’ or ‘I am always losing things’ and the negativity will start to breed and can take over your whole day. These are actually common thoughts I have at the start of the day and it stems down to something which I know I can easily change; my organisation skills and getting up earlier.

I am the kind of person who can be organised or get up early when I know that I absolutely have to. Like years ago when I was a teacher I would be up and out by 7.20am because I wanted to get my admin done prior to starting my day. I also manage to organise my equipment when I am going to see a client. However, when it comes to getting the kids to gymnastics on time or knowing where my keys are it’s a different story.

Therefore sometimes the best way to stop the negative self talk in situations like that is to take simple steps to preventing the situations-like getting up ten minutes earlier or having a specific place to put the keys.

The trickier negative self talk to ditch is that about our personal qualities and abilities. Things like ‘I have no friends’ , ‘I attract one idiot after another’ or ‘nothing every goes right for me’. These are harder to hit on the head as they are instilled in us by our experiences, sometimes right from childhood.

When we have a limiting belief like this which is deep routed, we go around looking for things all the time which confirm this belief. We also end up attracting these situations a it is the view we are putting out there.

For me the first step in challenging this is recognising when we are having a negative belief and acknowledging it. A tip I recently read in Katie Piper’s new book Confidence is to have a word which shuts down the negative thought and stops it in its tracks. It’s best to make it a neutral word and it can be something really random and funny. Mine is ‘Sausages’ .

This word is then your trigger to turn that belief around. Tell yourself the complete opposite. Even if you don;t believe it one bit. Once you start doing this you feel so much better.

The same goes with if you have to do something which you don’t want to do-sometimes for me it is simple things like emptying the cat litter tray or cleaning the bathroom. Nothing can change the fact you have to do it, the only thing which you have any control over is the attitude you have about it. You have a choice about whether to go about it in a positive way or negative complaining way. If it’s a really yucky task like cleaning the bathroom focus on the outcome-‘once it is done it’s done for another week and I can enjoy looking at a clean sparkling sink instead of one full of toothpaste stains.

So anyway, I will be writing a bit more about this as I look into this further but it’s an ongoing thing which I am working on and I think it’s something which can help anyone to ‘enhance’ their lives even in the smallest ways.

I have been meaning to update for a few days. I am now on day 12 of my 30 day to health living challenge. For anyone who has not read my previous post, for 30 days I am eliminating potential toxins of alcohol, sugar, wheat, dairy and caffeine.

I would love to say it’s been easy and I haven’t had any cravings, but I would be lying. The first couple of days were really hard, I felt hungry, bad tempered and particularly craving a bottle of the usual prosseco and a pizza on a Friday night was hard.

As I am progressing though, I am finding I am sleeping better, my energy levels are more stable and my face looks less bloated. I have lost about 4lbs so far. The protein powder, fizz sticks and surprisingly herbal teas have really been a god send in ensuring a stick to it as it takes the planning out of it.

I have actually been enjoying cooking from scratch and it isn’t as hard or expensive as I anticipated. I use the protein powders to make either a shake for breakfast with added spinach, kale or berries along with chicca seeds, almond butter or cacao powder. Sometimes if I don’t fancy a shake I will make a protein pancake or a mug cake with the powder and have berries on the side.

One naughty treat I have been indulging in is ‘protein chocolates’ which are weirdly addictive-however containing protein powder, pure coconut oil and almond butter they are not low fat (all be it they are good fats) so since I cannot just have one of anything tempting I have had to stop making them as I do want to see more weight loss.

One thing I have realised is that a lot of the eating habits I have are ‘situation triggered’ rather than a physical craving as such. For example, going in to a shop to buy petrol and picking up chocolate, taking the kids into town or to the park and looking for somewhere which sells coffee or, of course, sitting down after all the jobs are done and pouring a glass of wine. I am therefore using affirmations, visualization and distraction to get past this.

One of the things people often say they like about me is I am honest and real. Therefore I am going to be honest right now. My healthy intentions for January pretty much failed at the first hurdle .

Although I have commited to my exercise, the unhealthy habits with food have still been there. Listening to an Audio last weekend called ‘the slight edge’ was kind of a turning point for me as was attending a national training event for my business.

The Slight Edge is basically based on the philosophy that success is a result of simply choices and decisions we make on a daily basis. Likewise bad decisions and choices can lead to unwanted out comes.

Take diet for example; I might think ‘oh I have had a hard day I’ll get a bottle of wine and a pizza for tea’ . Ok so that one instance of doing this might not do any harm but this habit repeated constantly will do plus it leads to unhealthy associations that food is a comfort or reward.

I therefore decided to take action. I am committing to a program called 30 days to healthy living and beyond. In the past I’ve looked at clean eating or raw diets but I’ve always felt over whelmed by the amount of random foods and ingredients and the amount of planning involved.

The 30 days plan kind of acts as a bridge to a clean eating lifestyle by providing nutrition to help support someone like myself who wants to change their eating habits.

I have always been sceptical about ‘shake diets’ but looking into this I realised that this plan isn’t about using shakes to replace meals it’s about using them to supplement and support a healthy diet.

For someone like myself who is always eating on the go and rushing about (and who also hates cooking) I know that two meals a day are taken care of but that I can add ingredients to the protein or I can use it to make pancakes, protein porridge or breakfast bowls which can be packed full of nutrients it would otherwise be hard to obtain.

So why would I bother embarking on this when I’m not over weight?

Basically I have always kind of had this all or nothing approach to food. I’ve gone through times where I’ve lost weight by eating very little and times when I’ve gained weight by eating several takeaways and family size chocolate bars a week. Neither approach is healthy.

I generally follow a diet which is high in refined sugars, I consume a lot of caffeine and also convenience food. Now I’m lucky, my health is generally good. I have a reasonable amount of energy, I’m rarely ill and I’ve never been overweight as such. However this is with a pretty crap diet. What I want to find out is how amazing I can feel and look by completely overhauling my diet and using anazing nutrition to support it.

So without wanting to bang on too much, I’ll be eliminating;

Caffeine , alcohol, sugar, wheat, dairy and gluten.

Along with this I will be using Vegan nutrition by Arbonne to support my journey.

In all honesty the thing which prevented me from embracing the whole plan were: 1. cost-how could I justify spending on myself when I have two kids. But you know what I thought, I need to invest in myself and be the best version of myself BECAUSE I have two kids. I’ll also be looking at improving their diets too. Plus I realised although there’s an initial out lay I will then save money I would normally spend on cakes, alcohol and coffee shop coffees. I sold loads of stuff I didn’t need any more on eBay to fund it so I didn’t feel any need to justify spending on myself too anyway !

2. What others think; that is people saying ‘why are you doing that?’ ‘Don’t be stupid, your already thin’ ‘you’ll end up with an eating disorder’. Then I realised people who criticise me it’s their problem not mine and they probably only wish they had the discipline themselves

3.Fear of success-I know that sounds mad but I have never stuck to anything like this before and that feeling of actually getting my diet sorted and becoming a ‘clean eater’ instead of someone always looking for their next fix is quite scary. I hope that makes sense. In the end I had to say to myself ‘you deserve this’ , ‘you deserve to feel amazing’

Anyway, I have rambled on enough. I’ll be charting my progress on social media just to help myself stay on track really and so I can look at how far I’ve come.

All I ask is if you read this and you know me in real life. Please respect what I’m doing and support and encourage me. Even if it’s not something you would do yourself, it’s important to me ❤️

It’s no Secret that I am a huge fan of the book The Secret and hold firmly the belief that what we think about we bring about.

Never the less, sometimes in reality it really is hard to keep those negative thoughts creeping in. Today, for example, I was feeling a bit fed up, the weather is cold, my kids have been bickering, I have a suspect dental abcess causing a lot of pain not to mention the lingering cough my daughter has which my son will inevitably catch. So yes, while I do try and put out positive thoughts and energy at times it’s a difficult challenge.

One thing which can help when the going gets tough though is visual reminders. I have a number of affirmations which I use daily. At times when I’m not feeling it, I will take out my note book and re write them.

I have a lovely book a friend bought me some time ago called Start your Day with Katie which is an affirmation a day from the amazing Katie Piper.

Another thing which can be helpful is uplifting songs. I have a few favourites but right now the one at the top of my play list is Robbie Williams ‘I love my life’.

Additionally I have my gratitude journal which is a daily reminder to look for the positive in each day.

I also have my vision board in my room which actually I am hoping to update and do a separate post on. Basically a vision board (or at least mine does) includes a collection of quotes and affirmations which have meaning with me along with pictures of what I want for the future such as travel goals, work goals and fitness goals. It’s a great thing to do as a family too.

I would love to hear in the comments what others do to try and keep their thoughts and vision positive. I think once you get into that spiral of ‘I’m so unlucky, this always happens to me etc…’ it’s hard to escape it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been thinking about goals for the coming year. While I fully believe we can make resolutions to change aspects of ourselves or lives at anyone time; not just the start of a new year I think sometimes we kind of put stuff on hold over the festive season so we need that boot up the backside of the start of a new year.

AnywayI wanted to share what I have done as part of my goal setting and quest to self improvement. It’s something I heard about on Facebook from a lady who has been very successful with her Arbonne business. It relates to every aspect of life not just business or work.

You may be familiar with this method particularly if you have worked in the health sector, education or social work. It was totally new to me though.

Basically it involves the following:

1. Draw a large circle and divide it in half, then quarters, then Eighths and so on with lines.

2. In each segment write an area of your life which is significant to you (e.g. Kids, work, diet, home, love)

3. Now along each line below where you have written your area write numbers one to 10

4. The next step is to rate on a scale of one to ten where you see yourself on each aspect.

5. Now take a journal and write in it why you have given yourself that number and also WHAT you need to do to move forward one point by this time next month (just one point even if you have a low rating for that area).

6. At the end of each month review each area and whether you feel you can move forward a point and once again write down what needs to be done to move forward another point next month.

It does take some time if you do it properly (it took me about an hour and a half) but if you are totally committed to self improvement it’s such a valuable exercise.

Inevitably at this time of year, even if we are not ones for jumping on the ‘New Year, New Me’ band wagon, most of us start to reflect on the past year, make plans and set goals for the coming year. My new year’s resolutions are usually along the lines of ‘eat healthily, exercise more, stop complaining, find a new job, be more organised’ – the same as most people my age with my kind of life style no doubt.

I have in the past set some which I have actually stuck to. One year (I think 2010) my goal was to do interesting learning activities with my kids-I kept this up until my youngest started nursery and actually blogged about the things we did. Another circa 2012 was to lose the weight I had gained while pregnant (yes I know I had my youngest in 2008). I joined slimming world and have actually managed to stay somewhere between a size 9

This year, however, I am looking to make my resolutions (or rather goals or aspirations) more specific.Having either worked or been in education for literally all my life, I am more than familiar with setting SMART targets along with ‘self assessment’ and goal setting’ . Additionally I have thought about aspects of my life which I need to improve on in order to make life easier and make me a better person living my life more effectively.

Therefore I prefer to call them New Year Plans rather than resolutions. Here they are:

1. Get up an hour earlier each day– I am constantly complaining that I don’t have enough time or that I am always rushing about.Plus I am basically a complete tress head in the mornings. Eventually my aim is to get up two hours earlier each morning (imagine all the extra things which can be done in those two hours).

2. Read at least 10 pages of a self development book each day– I am a huge believer in personal growth and development particularly since reading The Secret and fully understanding the power of our thoughts and self belief. This goes hand in hand with getting up earlier each morning as I will be fitting my reading in to this extra time.

3. Try one new recipe each week- One area where I seriously lack is in the kitchen. My main issue is that I don’t particularly enjoy cooking coupled with the fact that being on my own with two fussy kids basically means if they don’t eat what I have prepared there is really only me to eat and enjoy it meaning all the effort in the kitchen seems a waste. None the less it’s an area I need to improve on and I have some great recipe books.

4.Exercise Daily-This doesn’t mean a full on workout every day, it could be as simple as 20 sit ups in the evening but every little bit adds up and contributes to the greater result. My goal is to do 30-60 minutes exercise at least 3 times a week combined with short bursts of exercise when I can.

I feel like I should have a fifth one as four seems an odd number (obviously I know it’s an even number). However goals such as being succesful in growing and developing my massage and beauty and network marketing businesses kind of interplay with the first two goals really. Getting up earlier will give me more time to get things done and personal development will increase my confidence, self belief and discipline.

I included one scoop of Vanilla protein, one scoup of chocolate, a few cacao nibs, cashew nut milk which is delicious and on offer for £1 in Sainsburys at the moment and finally Green’s balance. Green’s balance is a superfood concentrate which means basically you are getting tons of nutrients in one small serving.

I use the Acti blend to blend every up. I love Arbonne protein as its vegan based and gluten free and contains vitamins and minerals which stabilise bloody sugar levels. Perfect start to the day xxx

Ok so I admit it; since I posted about improving my diet, I really haven’t done an awful lot. Yes I have been enjoying a gorgeous protein shake in the morning but I have still been quite bad in the evenings and feasting on chocolate as well as indulging in alcohol. Nor have I been to the gym.

So it is now 11.20pm on Monday September 19th. and I am pledging to get serious: I want to see result and I want to have more energy and better skin. Beauty comes from within. I am going to the effort of using amazing products on my skin but I also need to pay more attention to what is going into my body.

Therefore I am going to cut down on refined sugars and processed foods and make more effort to eat foods in their purest form. I want my body looking how it did six months ago when I was a running fanatic.

I have kind of fallen out of love with running but I definitely need to get back into some form of exercise. I am a member of a gym so I think it is time to start exploring some classes there to shake things up a bit.